Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

"I understand that some countries would like to forget as soon as possible about the role that they played in the years of prior to World War II. However, I deem those attempts to accuse us of militarizing public opinion as offensive."

Many countries distort or omit inconvenient facts from their pre-World War II history, but Russia has all but eliminated the most difficult discussions from its state education system. One man was even fined for posting factual information.

Following the annexation of Crimea, the status of a collection of gold items lent to a Dutch museum prior to the Russian seizure remains in limbo, with both Kyiv and the local museums laying claim to the priceless artifacts.

Dmitry Kravchenko

Head of the missionary department of the Ekaterinodar and Kuban dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church

“They begin with English lessons. These guys, as a rule, come from the United States; they are native speakers, which is how they attract, but after a few lectures they start including some religious topics in their texts.”

Kravchenko’s claim is the opposite of what Russian authorities have accused the two Americans of doing. The Mormons legally entered Russia for “religious activities” but are accused of giving English language lessons instead. Experts said these accusations are fabricated.

Anatoliy Makarov

Russia’s Ambassador to Bulgaria

“The archive materials...are accessible to the Bulgarian archive services and researchers, including for the originals, a part of them was returned to Bulgaria in 1949 and 1958 during the Soviet Union. Now, however, the originals cannot be handed over in accordance with Federal Law No. 64 of April 15, 1998 ‘On Cultural Valuables Displaced [to the USSR] as a result of World War II and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation.’ But I will repeat again, access to them is open for the Bulgarians.”

The Russian ambassador speaks the truth when he says Russian law prevents Moscow from returning the Bulgarian archives. However, international law states the archives should be in Bulgaria. And the ambassador is wrong when he says the nation’s documents are readily available to Bulgarians.

Ramzan Kadyrov

Head of Chechnya, Russia

“Everything was done to ensure that our guys, and in their person the entire Caucasus, were humiliated and trampled in the dirt. The result speaks for itself – look at the monstrously disproportionate punishment imposed on our fighters and that [imposed on] the swaggering Irish provocateur Conor McGregor.”

The Nevada State Athletic Commission offered Nurmagomedov the chance to reduce his suspension to six months – the same as McGregor’s – by participating in a local anti-bullying campaign, but he refused.

Russian actor Aleksey Serebryakov has come under fire on Russian state media after criticizing the Kremlin for “inciting conflicts” at home and abroad. It is not the first time. Labelling dissidents “anti-Russian” is part of the broader pattern to alienate and silence government critics.

To some it was just a joke but in Russia Elon Musk’s phrase put him in the Kremlin’s propaganda dictionary, where one possessive pronoun divides the world into good and evil. But it did not make the entrepreneur a Russian spy.

Sputnik cried “censorship” after Facebook removed 364 Facebook pages and accounts for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” But while Sputnik charged the pages were removed for their politically-motivated content, Facebook says it was a matter of “misrepresentations of their identities.”

Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union have persecuted dissidents, sometimes using capital punishment. Modern Russia has abolished the death penalty, although a number of dissidents and journalists have been murdered, their cases remaining unsolved.

RT Russian Service

State-owned media outlet

“In December 2018, in the Odessa region, unknown persons organized a pogrom at a church in the village of Semenovka, Belgorod-Dniester district. The attackers stole donations and desecrated the church premises.”

The incident in the Odessa region was totally unrelated to the fire in Kyiv, and it was an act of vandalism.” No motive has been established. In Kyiv, police detained a 24-year-old homeless man who is accused of setting fire to some mattresses.